Monday, April 23, 2012

ZULU the great.....


He was always in hurry, either it was the ‘Mile track’ or the ‘HS’ he always hurried to.. I was a Khyberian and he an Eftikharian, I always saw him hurrying in the OTS and remained astonished that why on earth he could lead the ‘frog-jumping’ and ‘front-rolling’ platoon or trying to ‘dig oil’ out of soil on drill-staff’s Command? Why couldn’t he dodge such useless activities like all of us? Why couldn’t he hide in the dark during ‘punishment parade’ instead of running zealously between the trees as if he is competing for ‘final mile test’… he was a ‘Proper a_ _ hole’ as his platoon called him.. he didn’t dodge, he couldn’t in fact, how could he?  He was made as ‘proper’, a unique specimen in his chemistry, he couldn’t copy others, whenever he tried to dodge-out, he was caught…. So, he
We both landed in ‘10 Stars’ battalion together, I a ‘dodger’ and he a ‘Proper’ the nature must have also laughed on this combo. His hasten continued after ‘Passing out’ too, on every step he was found hurrying … hurriedly he walked, hurriedly he ran, hurriedly he ate, hurriedly he married, hurriedly ran towards his career goal and hurriedly he died! … all of a sudden everything fell…. The world he was creating for his loving family came down with a blast……
That idiotic driver who came suddenly on highway from a small link road near DG Khan couldn’t realize what a precious gem he took away not only from the family or from a ‘ladla beta’ Haseeb , but also from the ‘10 Stars’, from Sanjwaal village and from Pak Army.
He an expert driver, tried to save the careless driver but his time was up, the PATSO on the ‘Finish Point’ blew the whistle…. And…  thud.. thud… thud… the land cruiser toppled, dragged and dropped many yards down off the road.  Then….. his handsome smile faded…. His beautiful eyes closed ….. his brilliant and undimmed brain died on the spot whereas the kind heart stopped 3rd day…..
That was the end of  Lt Col. Zanfar Khan….  But only in this world, You sure must be speeding ‘up there’ as well…….  ‘And Do not consider them as dead! They are alive but you do not have the understanding!’ …. Zanfar is a martyr, I am sure ALLAH has placed him in a special billet where special people house….
It is unbelievable that four years have passed since you left us ZULU!  your family misses you, the 10 Stars miss you, we all miss you, I miss you… whenever, I need the best advice I miss you… whenever I need to throw my heart out I miss you … whenever, I need to joke, laugh and fete I miss you…  
Dear Zanfar!  May ALLLAH bless you with all eternal rewards in Heaven and give all those pleasures to your family you hurriedly worked towards, during your short life, Ameen!
Like we always wished each other a good bye, “See you soon, bro! ”…….

Friday, January 14, 2011

11 reasons to learn ISLAM

Dr. Isma'il Faruqi was an eminent Palestinian borne Muslim scholar who was residing in USA. He was considered an Authority on comparative study of religions, being a professor in department of religions in Temple university. This outstanding scholar was brutally stabbed to death along with his wife in their apartment in Wyncote, Pennsylvania USA on May 27th, 1986. 
In subsequent paragraphs, a lecture of Prof. Isma'il is furnished to enlightening our souls. This would also help non Muslims in understanding the facts about this 'religion of peace' : 


Within Islam it is both legitimate and right to ask the question: "Why Islam?" Every tenet in Islam is subject to analysis and contention. No other religion is willing to subject its basic fundamentals of faith to such questioning. For example, Saint Thomas Aquinas, the most rational of Christian theologians, stopped the use of reason when it came to the basic fundamentals of Christian faith. He then tried to justify faith. So to ask "why Christianity?" is an illegitimate question. However, Allah invites the question as to "why Islam?".

1. Rational System
Islam is also a rational system which not only allows questions but raises knowledge to a new level of dignity and respect. No other religion has exalted knowledge and its pursuit, as has Islam. In fact, for the first time in human history, a religious book invited people to question the creation of the universe and stated that in it (the universe) were signs for people of knowledge. Everything in Islam is subject to rational pursuit.

Islam has only forbidden the questioning of one thing and this is something which reason cannot handle. However, this does not imply an anti-intellectual attitude. The only thing which Islam has said is not within the capacity of the human mind to question is the essence (dhat) of God. This will always escape a person, as He, Allah, is transcendent. However, His will, His purpose, His works, His intentions and His effects can be known.

Even the rites of Islam can be examined rationally. For example, logical and rational explanations can be made for the time of Prayer, the number of rakats or units in Prayer and even why we must bend our toes when we do. Of course the Muslim will always be aware that the answer he has obtained by rational enquiry is not exhaustive. It cannot be definitely accepted as explaining all the facts. It could be erroneous or incomplete. However, Islam encourages its followers to ask "why Islam?". Islam is an intellectual and historical religion. There are no secrets and no mysteries which cannot be understood by an ordinary person.

2. Easily Understandable
Islam does not present stumbling blocks to the mind. It does not make claims which overwhelm the mind. Islam does not present to a person that which the human intellect cannot grasp. Anyone can understand Islam as it is a universal religion. However, for example, Hinduism legitimizes idolatry for the less educated, as it says, not all people can understand the higher religion of the Brahmans.

3. Universal Message
Islam does not force a person to choose between various religions as it has included the essential teachings of all religions in its universal message. The Islamic concept is that, to every people, Allah sends a Messenger and that in their present religion or ideology they must have retained some kernel of truth from the original teachings of that religion which was, of course, the teachings of the primordial religion (deen al-fitra) or, in other words, Islam.

Islam views inter-religious dialogue as an internal discussion, not as a discussion with outsiders because, from its perspective, all mankind are members of a universal religious brotherhood. So the differences Islam has with other religions are regarded as internal differences. Of course, Islam criticizes some Jews and Christians who have wrongly interpreted their faith, however, this criticism is based on the fact that they have strayed from the original teachings of their religion.

Islam, therefore, was the first religion in the world to call for the critical examination of religious texts. The Muslim says, in effect, to other religions: "Let us together examine the Holy Books of our religions and compare the contents with the original teachings of our respective religions and examine how far we have adhered to, or gone astray from these original teachings." Muslims, therefore, never attack other religions.

However, for the Hindu, if he has not been born in India, he is unclean; for the Jews the sacred law only applied to them and for the Christian there is no salvation outside the Church. Islam, however, accepts the personal morality and values of Jesus, the concept of liberating a human being from materialism found in Hinduism, as well as the practical ethics for harmony in human society as found in Confucianism.

4. Religious Tolerance
Islam is tolerant of other religions and regards them as religiously legitimate or de jure. In accepting other religions as legitimate, Islam, therefore, accepts their adherents. No other religion has given equal treatment to other religions as has Islam for over 1400 years. As we well know, Judaism and Roman Catholicism were illegal in the time of Queen Elizabeth I. In Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella, it was illegal to have any religion other than Catholicism, and Muslims and Jews had to choose baptism, exile or death. In the Middle East, some Christian sects, which were brutally eliminated by their fellow Christians in Europe, have survived after fourteen centuries of Muslim rule. Secular regimes do not respect religion. They look down upon religion; either they believe any religion will do or they believe no religion is acceptable. The tolerance of other religions in Islam comes from respect because Islam says in every person there is an embryonic fitra or purity planted in all human beings at birth and in every religion there is a basic kind of the original deen al-fitra.

5. The Human Being's Innocence
Islam declares a person to be born with a clean slate. The human being was not born evil but rather he was created good and equipped by nature to fulfill his duties. From the Islamic point of view, the drama of a person's life is something that takes place after birth and not before. Islam does not record a human being as a degradation of the divine as it regards a human being as having instincts which are pure and good.

6. The Human Being: An Integral Whole
Islam does not divide the soul and life of a person into two compartments, i.e. religious or ethical and verbal or material. Islam regards the human being as an integral whole. All of his actions and instincts are part and parcel of his being together with his hopes, fears, certitude, faith and conviction. Islam wants all these to cohere and, therefore, we could say that Islam is mental health par excellence. Islam considers a person's work or even sex in this world as an act of worship.

7. Life Filled With Purpose and Meaning
Islam takes the world of life and existence seriously, declaring it to be full of meaning and purpose. Life is not a sport, nor is it purposeless. From the Islamic perspective, everything has meaning because the concept of God's purpose in creation gives meaning to human life. The Muslim is never bored with life; there is no existential anxiety in Islam. The Muslim can see the working of the good purposes of the divine Creator in everything. The Muslim lives in a world where life is full of meaning and purpose and this means the Muslim never looses his mental balance. In fact, mental illness is very rare in the Muslim community.


8. World-Affirmative
Islam is world-affirmative. For the Muslim the world is good. It is a blessing, it has been created good, to be enjoyed. Islam does not view the world as a demon, it is not valued as being satanic or evil. It is not a degraded kingdom. The world is the only kingdom; the hereafter is not a kingdom but merely a place of Judgment for a human person's actions during his life. For Muslims, the world is a beautiful place; pearls, clothes and horses are to be enjoyed. What is wrong, is its misuse under moral law. The world is good and Muslims are obliged to cultivate it and make it into a garden. The process of organizing people as a community is a religious duty.

No 'ism', ideology or religion matches Islam in its world-affirmative stance. All Muslims should be wealthy and affluent. It is Satan who promises poverty, not God. In fact, the Qur'an criticizes those who were lazy and who failed to migrate, who could not pull themselves up by their bootstraps; they deserved what they got. To be a Muslim is to live in and to be loyal to this world but not above and beyond our loyalty to Allah.

9. A Social Faith
In building this world and conforming it to God's desire, Muslims are told that they must work with each other and not alone. Islam establishes a social order not a mystical order. Islam's social order has teeth, regulated by law, the Shariah. Islam wants to establish a social order to command the good and prevent the evil. However, every Muslim must correct evil. It is his duty, just as much as it is his duty to pray five times a day.

In Islam, it is of the highest degree of faith to plunge into space and time and bring about the transformation of the world in accordance with God's desire. Islam is affirmative action in a social setting; it is neither abstract nor isolationist. Islam establishes justice and an ordered society, regulated by law. Islam guarantees justice for all; Madinah was that class of model society. In those days justice had no price. For several centuries under Islamic rule any citizen who voiced a complaint could be sure that justice would be done. No theory of society can give as much as the Islamic theory of society has given. Society, based on race, language or history are prototypes of the animal world where dog eats dog. The social order of Islam ends this and brings justice to all. A Muslim's mission is to bring order and this international society established by Islam must be carried to the world and, therefore, the Islamic social order seeks universality.

10. Universal System
Islam provides a social order which cannot only tend to be universal but must become universal. The Islamic system is a system for world order and it must spread around the world. Unless it is spread around the world, it will degenerate into a form of nationalism which is haram or unlawful in Islam. Islam is built on the basis of values which are not only for the group which adheres to them, but for the whole of mankind. Allah is the deity of all people and the Islamic concept of society must spread all over the world.

Does Islam deny the value of national, ethnic or linguistic identity and culture? No! Islam recognizes the worth of these national and ethnic groups. Islam does not only tolerate but encourages the development of different ethnic groups. The group has a special perspective on the values affecting people's lives. Insofar as it exists, national culture is encouraged by Islam, but it is subject to the universal law of Allah. The interests of the nation or group must be subject to the moral law, the Shariah, which encompasses the whole of mankind. Islam created a world society and it was Islam, over 1400 years ago, that first established a working system of international law.

It was only in the 20th century that the West started to develop international law. Grotius contributed only wishful thinking. In the West, international law existed only in the imagination until after World War I when the League of Nations was established. The present system of international law is far inferior to the Islamic system of international law because, under the Islamic system, the law of nations is backed by a court and not just a single court in the Hague. Any Shariah court in any part of the world can hear any international dispute to which the parties are not only nations but also individuals. If we want to solve international problems we must make justice under international law possible for everyone.

11. Promoting Harmony With The Environment
Islam is a religion that enables us to live our lives in harmony with nature, ourselves and God. Islam does not compartmentalize but rather unites the life of a person. This is the summum bonum, supreme good of Islam because Islam assures us of happiness in this world and the Next. Presently, people are so madly in pursuit of this world that it has resulted in upsetting the ecology of nature; this because of the decay in the inner nature of human beings. In this age of unprecedented advancements in science and technology, the pursuit of worldly gain has turned sour and self-destructive because it is devoid of all ethical values. Therefore the pursuit of dunya (worldly affairs) without Deen can only lead to, and has led to, disaster. On the other hand, pursuit of Deen (religion) without dunya (temporal world) is merely daydreaming. Islam asks people to cultivate the world without robbing, usury, stealing and raping the environment and insists that people must carry out their tasks subject to moral law. For the Muslim, involvement and success in the world will ensure success in the hereafter. If practiced with sincerity, Islam guarantees happiness in this world and the next. Having granted this great gift of God to humanity what else could we do but say 'we hear and we obey and all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds.' 

By Isma'il Raji Al-Faruqi...... 

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Surah 'Al Waqiyaa' , The (Final) Event.....

Salam to all readers!

You must have read this Surah (Chapter) in Quran, it is in 27th 'Paara' (Part) and comes after Surah 'Ar Rehman'..... Somehow I have developed a love to this beautiful chapter furnished with divine words of God.

While going thru it, we come to know that Allah has distributed the mankind in three distinct groups:

  • First group, 'As-Sabiquoon'- the early people or those who are ahead of commoners....... these are the pious followers of Islam who acted completely on the teachings and instructions provided by the Holy Prophet (PBUH) in true letter and spirit. Always tried to compete within each others in nearing themselves to God.. They are called 'Sabiquoon' and were given the good news of eternal Heavens, variety of delicious foods and other unmatched bounties. They were praised by God Himself as  "How happy and filled those will be in Heavens, They will not hear any bad word there, just SALAM.. SALAM (Peace and peace to everyone)....... these people will be very closed to ALLAH on the final day.... so are called as 'Muquarrabeen' (The near and dear ones) they are more in numbers within early Muslims and lesser in Following eras....... 
  • Second group, 'Ashaab al Yameen' - The Right siders....... the people who will be on the Right side in the ground during the day of judgement (Maidaan e Hashr)  OR the people who will be given their 'final report card' (Naama e Aimaal ) in their right hands....... They are the people though committed some Sins in the world but always returned to God, kept asking His forgiveness and remained away from those Sins till death.... OR may be those who were able to get Allah's forgiveness before they died... they will also live in eternal Heavens and will enjoy the ultimate bounties of God.... The Good news is given that this category will be more in all the eras ............ 'Sullatum min al Awwaleen wa Sullatum min al Aakhireen........' (More in numbers during early era of Islam as well as more in following durations)...........
  • The Third category is composed of  'Ashaab ash Shimaal' (The left siders) as the term denotes these people will be either on  the left side in ground of judgement or be given their final report in their left hands..... these are the people who throughout their lives remain committed in their activities against Islam, the Sinners who negated Allah, His last Prophet (PBUH) and Islam's teachings kept doing heinous crimes and without begging the forgiveness kept involved in Sins including the SHIRK (To share someone else with Allah and in His divine powers) the biggest sin of all times which remains unforgivable......   These people are given the bad news of being sent to Jahannum  (The Hell), and what bad place is that to be in ! ............ Says Allah in this chapter.. these people of Hell will remain be subjected to various punishments forever....  
I heard that reciting this Surah after Maghrib prayers opens new doors of prosperity and bounties of God.. however, I opine that Quran has been sent to us through Holy Prophet (PBUH) for being followed, to be taught and to be implemented in our lives........ Allah's words are undoubtedly powerful and may be recited for acquiring His blessings however, considering these as a 'prescription for an ailment' or a 'Talisman' for good luck may not be a right idea as, followers of other religions as well have numerous of such 'items' within their respective believes....   

I request you please, inculcate the habit of reciting Quran with translation on regular basis, this would help us a lot to learn the message of God direct in His own words.....

May God bless us all..............

Monday, October 25, 2010

The Almighty.......

Qur'an, The Criterion, Surah 25:61-62
Blessed is He Who made constellations in the skies, and placed therein a Lamp and a Moon giving light; and it is He Who made the Night and the Day to follow each other: for such as have the will to celebrate His praises or to show their gratitude.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Seeking refuge in ALLAH.....

I seek refuge in Allah from knowledge that brings no wisdom, from a heart that lacks kindness, from desires that bring discontent, and from supplications that go unanswered.
- Hadith The Prophet Muhammad (SAW), as reported by Abu Hurairah

Monday, October 18, 2010

ALI, the Lion of God.....

Salam to all readers,

I am sorry to remaining away from the blog, the worldly needs do have impacts... and I am a sinful human being after all.  However, on the 'order' of someone very close to my heart, I sat on the key board to share few lines with you all..... this is in regards to present days'  hoola hai   of portraying Islam as a barbaric religion and Muslims as savages.... let me furnish a historical event which took place about fifteen hundred years ago in a battle field.

   Ali, the son in law of holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the first Muslim child, the husband of Fatima the most beloved daughter of holy Prophet (PBUH) was taking part in a war against Jews, he encountered with a giant Chief warrior who had the title of  'invincible giant', Ali after a hard battle threw the Jew chief on ground and mounted upon him, as per his habit after saying  LA ILAHA ILLAL ALLAH, MUHAMMAD AR RASOOL ALLAH  was about to kill him when, the Jew seeing his ultimate death spat on the pure face of Ali Sher e Khuda  (the lion of God)........ Now guess what did Ali do?  He sliced Jew's throat immediately ?  No...... Killed him mercilessly by cutting away his limbs, then ears, then nose to ensure a painful death, as per the War-customary of Arab Christian and Mushriks in those days,  No.......   Arrested him to be tried in Islamic court to award an exemplary punishment so that world to know how it meant to spit on such a meritorious general and closest relative of Holy Prophet (PBUH). NO.........
Ali dismounted from his opponent instantaneously by saying, ' Go away, live your life.... I hereby spare you'......  Wow!  are you shocked? same was the opponent ...... with his mouth gapping, breath souring and body shivering ran after Ali and blocking his way asked, ' O ye, strange warrior!  what has happened ? I spat on you ..... an act of sheer disrespect, how could you spare my life instead of chopping off my head immediately?

Ali, the Lion uttered the historical words, which were about to become the rules of War, the Islamic art of war...... Ali said, " O warrior!  I came to this battle field in the name of Allah (God), I fought and was killing you only in the way of God .......  when you spat on me, the 'case' changed ..... the issue became personal,  an enmity between you and me.... if now I kill you,  it would become a murder out of personal grudge... I am a soldier of God  NOT  a murderer "  .............

"Who on earth could fight with such professionals?"  the Jew could speak, followed by ' LA ILAHA ILLA ALLAH MUHAMMAD AR RASOOL ALLAH' .........

The Jew chief after embracing Islam rose to the top Generals of Islam and lead many wars as a Muslim hero... he became famous as Hazrat Ubaid  (RA).....

Wouldn't this historical event, is a response of those who portray Muslims as Barbarians.... I would like to repeat again here that strategy / tactics of terrorists like Taliban or Al Qaeda should not be mistaken with Islamic teachings.... We will discuss it in detail, some other time Insha Allah....

This is also to be kept in mind that brutalities of  Crusaders, Hindus in Gujrat / Ayodhia, or Nazis in WW II and other similar atrocities of non Muslims are never titled as 'Christian terrorism',  'Hindu terrorism'  or 'Jew terrorism'...... Why, every terrorist act today (though involving Muslim names)  is labelled as Islamic terrorism?......